Pharmaceuticals are typically packaged in containers that are difficult to open by a child but desirably easy to open by an adult. Many child resistant packages have been designed but they tend to also be difficult and cumbersome for an adult, especially a senior, to open.
Child resistant packages generally fall into one of three broad categories: vials or bottles with a child resistant cap or closure; blister packs with a removable barrier and/or a frangible push-through back; and pouches with tear-resistant material and concealed tear-notches. Exemplary of packaging with a removable barrier over a frangible back is that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,809,221, wherein a rupturable press-through blister type medicament or pill package is “childproofed” by securing a strong flexible polymeric backing sheet, such as polyethylene terephthalate, over the rupturable sheet in such a manner that the pill cannot be forced through the package unless the backing sheet is first peeled off Another example of this type of packaging is the so-called “bend-and-peel” structure disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,988,004. While these packages are child resistant, they can also be difficult to open by a senior.
Requirements for senior-friendly packaging have been added to the regulations. A package is considered to be senior-friendly if it can be opened by a test panel in the age group 50-70. This age group is more likely than other adults to have medications in the home, and certain packages such as “push-down-and-turn” or “squeeze-and-turn” caps, or a removable barrier over a frangible back, can be difficult to operate by a senior, and especially someone with an arthritic condition. This difficulty would probably result in disabling the child-resistant feature and ultimately defeating the intended purpose of the packaging.
Efforts have been made in the prior art to solve the foregoing problems by providing a pill package with child-resistant properties while retaining ease of opening by an adult. Examples of this type of packaging are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,047,829, 6,230,893 and 6,752,272. These packages comprise a slide card insert incorporating a blister pack carrying multiple unit doses of medication, wherein the card is movable out of an outer sleeve to gain access to the blister pack and the medication carried therein. In the '829 and '893 patents the card is retained in the sleeve by a catch or latch, and a button 30 is depressed to release the latch and permit the card to be slid out of the sleeve so that the medication can be dispensed from the blister pack. Folded extensions on the sleeve engage the card to prevent it from being completely withdrawn from the sleeve. Although these packages would be relatively easy for a senior to open, they may also be easy for a child to open since it would be necessary only to depress the button 30 to release the locking feature, whereby the card could be gripped through the aligned notches and withdrawn from the sleeve. The '272 patent purports to solve this problem by providing offset, asymmetrically placed notches that require asymmetric placement of the fingers to grip and withdraw the slide card. However, this differs from the normal mode of opening only in that the fingers have to be offset slightly when gripping the card. Folded extensions are also provided on the sleeve in the package described in this patent, to engage the card to prevent it from being completely withdrawn from the sleeve.
It would be advantageous to have a package that is reliably difficult for a child to open but relatively easy for an adult to open, that may be opened and closed many times without adversely affecting the integrity of the package, and that is simple and inexpensive to make.